Pirates of the Caribbean: Fountains of Crystal
by Rachel Ewok
Summary: Set one month after the end of At World's End, our story picks up with Elizabeth Turner and her maid Charlotte, who seems oddly familiar to Elizabeth. Also, the story of Jack Sparrow continues... Will he find the fountain of youth? Or be cursed? Find out!
1. Chapter 1: Ms Turner

Pirates of the Caribbean: Fountains of Crystal

Chapter 1

Ms. Turner

"Is there anything else you would have done Ms. Turner?" The young maid curtseyed to Elizabeth Turner, who was resting on a love seat in a ray of sun on the balcony. _Ms. Turner_. Yes, it was a lovely name; Elizabeth smiled, never regretting taking the name of William Turner. It helped her think of him, and to remember that in ten years he would be home. It wouldn't be so long of a wait, one month had gone by quickly, only nine years eleven months to go. She hoped.

"No that will be all Charlotte." Elizabeth returned with a curt nod. Charlotte nodded her head, her sleek chocolate hair sliding over her shoulder, and turned on her heel out the balcony door. Elizabeth smiled after her. Charlotte was young, about seventeen and had the fresh air of a young girl waiting to make her way in the world.

Elizabeth turned her face up toward the sky, allowing the warm sun to touch her face as the cool ocean breeze tousled her dark honey hair. While she would have been content to lie there all day but suddenly she grabbed her stomach sat up, feeling violently ill. With no where to run, and not wanting to throw up over the side of the balcony, she leaned over the nearest flower pot and instead threw up inside that. She lay for a moment and then sat up on her lounge chair again, sighing miserably. This had been going on for a few weeks now, and she could only think of one thing, but couldn't bear to say it out loud or let herself think about it for more than a minute.

Hearing her retching, Charlotte appeared almost instantly on the balcony. "Oh Ms. Turner." She frowned, _"Not the flowers again."_ She thought, but instead put on a quick, tender smile and said. "Here let me get you some water." Quickly Charlotte turned and hurried down the hallway. Ms. Turner and her condition were growing more obvious, this of course was causing some gossip within the maid's quarters.

As Charlotte turned the corner to the kitchen to pump some water for Elizabeth the cook, Esmé, with eagerness in her eyes and gossip on her tongue asked, "Again?" Charlotte gave a slight nod, and Esmé turned giddy with delight, like a school girl hearing what boy fancied her. "That is the third time today!" She cackled and Charlotte's lips turned down in a frown. "I am aware." She answered sourly and turned out of the room with a pitcher of crystal water for Ms. Turner.

She stalked down the hallway and up a flight of stairs to the balcony, and she fluffed her hair, shook her skirts, took a deep breath, and put on a smile before she opened the door.

She came through and smiled, "Now Ms. Turner. Don't you worry, here is some water for you," she poured a glass of the cool water and offered it to Elizabeth. "Drink it miss, to rid you of the bad taste."

Elizabeth took the water hastily, and as civilly as possible gulped it down with greedy thirst. Finally she gave the glass back to Charlotte, "Thank you Charlotte." She said, meaning it in every way possible. "Is that all Ms. Turner?"

"No Charlotte, help me to bed. I feel tired; I think I need a nap." Charlotte moved to the side of Elizabeth and helped her up. "Yes ma'am." The pair walked silently into Elizabeth's bedroom and Charlotte hurried to turn down the bed covers to prepare them for Ms. Turner.

Charlotte then helped Elizabeth off with her summer dress and into her night gown. As Elizabeth climbed into bed and adjusted the covers Charlotte drew the curtains and the whole room was darkened.

"Is there anything else you wish Ms. Turner?" Charlotte asked with a smile. Stifling a yawn, Elizabeth returned the smile and said. "Sit here with me for a moment Charlotte, I wish to talk with you."

Charlotte took a tentative step forward, and Elizabeth smiled. "I assure you, it is quite alright," and gave a reassuring nod. Charlotte sat on the small chair by the side of Elizabeth's bed. "I know the other staff gossip about my… condition." Elizabeth raised an eyebrow, "I do want you to be the first to know for sure as I consider you one of my dearest friends here."

Charlotte blushed at this, "You flatter me Ms. Turner, thank you." Elizabeth smiled warmly. "I do believe I am with child, and Will is the father… You have taken such good care of me Charlotte, I wish to give a raise in your pay so that perhaps you may go and find a man and start a family with. I see such potential in you; you don't need to be my maid for the rest of your life." Charlotte's eyes widened, "Thank you Ms. Turner. I don't know what to-"

Elizabeth put up her hand, "Please do not thank me. Call me Elizabeth when we talk together like this… Just consider it a friend helping another friend. There is a small pouch of coins for you on my dresser. Go into town for the rest of the day, find yourself a nice dress, consider it my birthday present to you."

Charlotte grinned, "Thank you Ms. T- Elizabeth. Thank you." Her eyes were smiling too, and for a moment it struck Elizabeth as strangely familiar but she couldn't quite figure out why.

"You may leave now Charlotte." Elizabeth smiled, her eyes beginning to droop. "Have a nice time." Charlotte stood and curtseyed. "Thank you again… Elizabeth." With that she picked up the small velvet pouch and quietly exited the room.

Elizabeth shook her head, the familiarity she had seen in Charlotte's eyes were so strange. She would think of it soon, or else it would drive her mad.


	2. Chapter 2: Unfit for Voyage

Chapter 2

Unfit for Voyage

It had been a few weeks since Jack left Tortuga in a dinghy. He had stolen the center of Barbossa's charts and he knew that he would make it to the fountain of youth first. Jack Sparrow planned to live forever and he knew that if he could find the fountain of youth, the living forever part of his plan would be all set.

It was too bad that he had only this dinghy with just a weeks worth of food left. What had he been thinking when he set off from Tortuga? Jack sucked on his teeth as he looked miserably out the side of the "boat". Maybe it was his imagination but it seemed to be sitting lower in the water.

Jack blinked a few times; it was probably the lack of rum. Yes, that was it, lack of rum. He couldn't bear the thought of sinking two borrowed boats. That would not be good, and came to the sudden realization that he needed to stop borrowing boats. He needed to stop borrowing boats from wenches, especially ones who were smart and strong enough to _be_ boat owners.

Jack sighed and slid his tongue over his front teeth and gave a disgusted look around. He would need to go into port somewhere and stock up on supplies. He sauntered to the sides of his dinghy and looked; his mouth twisted in a half annoyed half amused look. "Nothing over here… And nothing over there." He mumbled to himself.

"Well Jack, I guess it's just you and me now… And since there's only one of me and none of you I can see this will be a dull voyage indeed." He sat in the bow of the dinghy with his head in his hands. "And no rum neither. What were you thinking Jack Sparrow?"

"Well I don't know." He responded to himself in a deeper voice, "It was you who didn't take the time to really stock up on supplies! What, did you think? That you would find the island like that with no long trip ahead of you?"

Jack frowned, his nostrils flaring, "Well I didn't realize that the fountain of youth was so far away, that the only reason you needed it was because you grew ancient on the mere trip there!" He folded his arms, "I'm done talking with you." He sneered, and answered, "Well good, because you don't keep very good conversation anyway!" With a smirk he closed his eyes for a moment.

The ocean spray was what woke him up and when he opened his eyes he realized it had been more than a moment. "Where in the bloody world am I!?" He asked aloud as he staggered up and squinted his eyes, staring out to the open ocean.

It was dusk, but behold! There was a small island to the east and Jack nodded his shoulders and shook his hands in a gesture of delight. "Well done Captain Sparrow." He smiled, "Another island found with great navigation." He ambled over to the mast of the small boat and leaned up against it. "Job well done Captain," He smiled, "It's a wonder you don't have your own crew." He turned his upper lip up in loathing at that statement, and began busying himself with the tiller, steering himself toward the island.

Even if there wasn't a port there, he could still find a few coconuts at least, and stock up for a trip to civilization to truly stock up to head out for the Fountain. Because even though he wanted to deny it, his boat as well as his supplies was not fit for voyage.

Jack rubbed the corner of his eye with his pinky his mouth slightly open and tried to gauge the distance from himself to the island. It wasn't too far, it would take maybe fifteen minutes to get there, and with the tides carrying him _toward_ land it would go all the faster.

He leaned back against the side of the boat and pushed his hat over his eyes, still holding the tiller. He twitched his nose moving his moustache around trying to settle the itch on the end of his nose.

A fly landed on the tip of his nose and he crossed his eyes to get a better look at it and blew air out the side of his mouth to get the little bugger gone. He couldn't let flies sit on him, because next thing you knew birds would disrespect him and sit on him too. Then what next? He could turn into a perch for all kinds of animals.

Jack pondered that for a while as he steered himself toward the island. It wasn't inhabited, he didn't see any buildings or boats around in the water, so it must be deserted he concluded.

Finally Jack pulled the boat up on to shore; he jumped out and pulled it up on to the shore, so that it was not touching the water and so it would not float away. It didn't look like anyone made stops here, so he wouldn't be getting a ride from any rum smugglers.

Rum. Jack sighed painfully and began to walk down the beach. What he wouldn't give for rum, food too. Food would be nice perhaps a delicious- Jack was suddenly aware of a crunch under his foot.

Thinking what it could be and not wanting to look down, he closed his eyes and counted backwards from five. _Five, four, three, two, one._ Jack took a breath and slowly opened one eye; he peered downward and saw what he didn't want to see.

He snapped his eye shut as if willing it to disappear and took a step backward. Again with the crunching! Jack gave a slight moan of disgust and turned and ran, his arms waving from side to side, back to the boat.

As he sat against the side of the boat, he gazed down the beach. It was covered with them, and almost no sand was visible. Why were they here? Would he be next? Jack shuddered and stared at the skulls. The miles and miles of human skulls.


	3. Chapter 3: Coconuts

Chapter 3

Coconuts

Jack shuffled backwards, sitting on the ground, using his hands to drag him until his back was against his little dinghy. He surveyed the beach of bones again, nose wrinkling in disgust. "Ewww." He muttered, turning to focus his attention back on the open ocean.

He rubbed his chin, and twirled his beard trying to formulate a plan. Grab as many coconuts from the tree about twenty feet away as possible, then run, jump in the boat and never look back. The plan sounded feasible, except for the fact that the sun was now setting and sharks would likely be coming out to feed. While Jack didn't mind navigating the ocean at night, he'd had quite a bit of it in the past few weeks, and he didn't like the idea of being so close to the shore. But then, he didn't like the idea of staying on this island at night either.

Deep in thought, Sparrow didn't hear the faint whispering or the slight crunch in the brush just behind him. "Of course dolphins are always an option." He muttered to himself, then his nose wrinkled in disgust. "No you idiot then there will be more than just a tasty, dashingly handsome" He winked, "Pirate for large sea creatures to snack on." He turned his head the other way, "You're right." He rolled his eyes, but gave a slight nod of agreement.

"On the other hand, there _are_ bullets left in the pistol." He gave a flick of his hand holding his palm up in a bored fashion. "But it would rather be a waste." He turned his head again, and said to himself in a different sounding voice, "Of a bullet you twit. A waste of a perfectly good bullet, which could certainly do much better things to help you survive here."

Jack shrugged, "Well do _you_ have any good ideas you stupid oaf? I'm a little sick of-" Jack was not able to finish his sentence as he felt hands grab him under his arms, and something hit his head. Hard. Just as the world was turning black Jack thought, "A coconut. I never did trust those things." Then he fell into darkness.


End file.
